Environmentalists have filed their opening brief in their suit challenging EPA's “framework” rules for prioritizing and assessing existing chemicals for possible regulation under the revised Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), arguing the rules violate a requirement to conduct a holistic review that considers all of a chemical's uses.
September 17, 2026
The U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board's (CSB) is asking a federal appellate court to grant it broad power to subpoena documents related to “potential” releases at facilities where it is investigating industrial incidents, a move that a major refiner is resisting, charging it amounts to an unlawful expansion of the board's powers.
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Critics of EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt's two-year delay of Obama-era updates to the agency's risk management plan (RMP) facility safety program are criticizing a list of prior rule delays that EPA says justify postponing the RMP rule, with opponents of the delay saying the other rules had legal justifications and were not tested in court.
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OSHA's review commission is seeking unusual public input on whether and how regulators can address workplace heat stress cases under the agency's general duty clause, as a company is challenging a citation arguing that the Secretary failed to establish that the hazard existed or that the employer could have reasonably recognized such a hazard.
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Health groups and the Chemical Safety Board (CSB) are at odds over how a federal court should proceed in the plaintiffs' lawsuit alleging the board has unlawfully failed to promulgate rules requiring industrial facilities to report their chemical releases following an incident and are asking the court to resolve the issue.
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Environmental, labor and public interest groups are urging White House officials to preserve and quickly implement the Obama-era rule bolstering EPA's facility accident prevention program, even as the Trump administration prepares to issue a plan that is widely expected to scale back the regulation.
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House Speaker Paul Ryan's (R-WI) announcement that he would not be seeking reelection in the upcoming midterms appears to have boosted prospects for Democrat Randy Bryce, a union iron worker who is running on a platform that pledges to “fully fund” OSHA in the face of the Trump administration's budget cuts.
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A healthy food group is challenging the safety record of a demonstration facility that is operating under an Agriculture Department (USDA) regulatory waiver program as the agency considers a planned rule that would ease oversight and increase line speeds at swine processing facilities, charging the facility lost “process control,” and found increased contamination and personnel hazards when line speeds increased.
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OSHA has submitted a final version of the Trump administration’s plan to scale-back Obama-era beryllium standards to the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review, just as slag- and non-slag abrasive producers are intensifying their battle over which products would trigger the rule's safety requirements.
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EPA is touting a list of more than two dozen federal rules from 1983 to 2013 in which agencies have delayed existing regulations while weighing revisions to those policies, in response to an appellate court order to provide the list in a suit testing EPA's delay of an Obama-era facility safety rule while the agency reconsiders the regulation.
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The Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) is warning that a draft EPA rule allowing a new use of an existing chemical fails to adequately assess risks to workers and is “legally vulnerable,” suggesting a new chemical-specific path for groups to challenge EPA's approval of new chemical uses under the revised Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA).
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Six states operating under OSHA-approved state plans have yet to adopt their own rules to implement the Obama OSHA's March 2016 regulation updating limits for exposure to silica, raising legal questions and warnings from observers that it poses a significant “compliance dilemma” and jeopardizes workers' safety.
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Critics of President Donald Trump's executive order (EO) forcing OSHA, EPA and other agencies to identify two existing rules for repeal for every new rule they issue are adding to their district court complaint over the EO, citing alleged harm from several agencies' delayed rulemaking efforts that the plaintiffs argue are a direct result of the order.
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OSHA has ordered a Boston based flight company to reinstate a pilot who was terminated after reporting violations of Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) rules but who was protected under federal whistleblower laws, a “highly rare exception” according to government watchdog groups who are seeking to strengthen the agency's authorities.
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Industry and public health advocates are skeptical that a Trump administration plan to create a new OSHA and EPA working group will better inform first responders of facilities' safety risks, with industry arguing EPA's facility accident prevention program already addresses the risk while an advocate is criticizing officials for rolling back Obama-era efforts to update the program.
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EPA's Inspector General is launching a review of the agency's implementation and enforcement of its rule governing protections for contractors from lead paint dust during residential renovation and repairs, just as the agency is scrambling to comply with a court order to strengthen the rule's standard for determining when they must comply with the rule's safety requirements.
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Industry attorneys say a slow nomination process has left Labor Secretary Alex Acosta to push the Trump administration's deregulatory agenda “without anywhere close to a full house,” and to expect a “minimalist deregulatory” approach and little policy changes from OSHA as the agency awaits Senate confirmation of permanent leadership.
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Appellate judges hearing litigation over EPA's two-year delay of Obama-era revisions to the agency's facility safety rule are demanding that the Trump administration provide a list of all federal agency rules prior to 2017 where effective dates of existing rules were changed solely to allow time for a potential reconsideration of those regulations.
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Manufacturers of slag abrasives used for industrial blasting, cleaning and other purposes are making an 11th-hour push to roll back OSHA's beryllium rule, releasing a new study that even non-slag abrasives, which some have suggested may be a safer alternative, contain beryllium, and that “unecessary regulations” impact the entire industry “regardless of material used.”
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A new study linking low-level lead exposure with increased risk of adult deaths from cardiovascular disease could help EPA strengthen its cost-benefit analyses and drive new or updated rules to address the metal, including a measure addressing lead paint in public and commercial (P&C) buildings where the agency is struggling to assess risks to adults.
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